The Relationships: Attitude Toward Advertising

The advertising industry is one that receives much recognition for its diversity.

• It's entertaining... It provides amazing works of creativity that blend magically with the our society full of culture and life.
• It's functional...It creates brand awareness for the consumers and builds brand identity for the advertisers' products and/or services.
• It's controversial...Some organizations feel that advertising presents unfair and inaccurate portraits of our society, adding nothing but unhealthy trends and sometimes unattainable goals by some consumers...all the while costing the consumers money.
• It's educational...It brings consumers stories and facts on products, some of which become the center of societal trends--and objects of desire.

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) provides a mission statement advocating the value of advertising.

But how do you feel--and how is your attitude--toward the institution of advertising?

An individual's attitude-toward-advertising-in-general (AG) is one of five factors proposed by Lutz that contribute to an individual's attitude toward specific advertisements (17).

Sandage and Leckenby (1980) proposed that the determinants of individuals' attitudes toward advertising are composed of attitudes toward the "institution" and the "instruments" (23). Muehling (1987) conducted a study on AG, and because he measured people's attitudes--their feelings and likes/dislikes toward an object, he essentially measured beliefs about advertising (17).

Muehling's findings were consistent with those of Sandage and Leckenby: Attitudes toward advertising as an institution were higher than attitudes toward individual advertisements (17).

"Advertising is the institution of abundance."

David Potter, People of Plenty. Chicago: UC Press, 1954

Consumers' attitudes toward this institution are crucial to the success and future of advertising because of the social and economic functions--heavy and crucial--assigned to advertising.

Next - The Overview - The Introduction - The Psychological Spectrum - The Relationships - The Economic Realm - The Conclusion - The Resources - The Contacts - The Author

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